Avalon approves new lease for Catalina Island Yacht Club

[This story updates a story printed in the April 7-20 edition of The Log.]

Catalina Island Yacht Club has a new lease with the city of Avalon, as the two parties came to an accord during the City Council’s April 4 meeting.

The Yacht Club will remain at its current location through 2023 and have an option to extend lease terms an additional 10 years.

Current lease terms were set to expire in 2020.

Avalon city officials offered the yacht club a three-year extension and 10-year option in July 2016. Club leadership, however, sought a longer extension term.

Both parties, however, finally agreed to the July 2016 offer after a nine-month delay.

[Below is the original story.]

A planned discussion on lease extension talks to keep Catalina Island Yacht Club at its current waterfront location in Avalon was postponed to a later meeting, according to City Manager David Jinkens.

The yacht club lease extension was to be discussed at Avalon City Council’s March 21 meeting. However a representative from Catalina Island YC (or CIYC) was not able to attend the meeting.

Catalina Island YC hopes to continue its lease arrangement with the city of Avalon, but final terms of the extension have not yet been finalized.

Yacht club staff sought a longer lease with the city, however both sides need more time to negotiate certain details, according to Avalon city staff.

“While the CIYC management would like a longer term lease that conforms to previous city extensions they understand that more time is needed to discuss and negotiate terms and the bases and rationale for a longer-term lease,” city staff stated in a report to council members. “City management has suggested … the basis for a longer term lease could be agreement by the CIYC to provide financial support for construction of a new city-owned recreational facility in the harbor area.”

Both sides will come to terms on a lease extension, city staff added; it’s just a matter of determining the length of the lease extension.

City officials had most recently proposed an extension through 2023, with an option to extend another 10 years.

Catalina Island YC’s headquarter was built in 1924. The club funded its construction.

The yacht club could remain at its current location through 2033 should both parties reach amenable terms. Current lease terms, last extended in 1995, were originally set to expire in 2020. An agreement could be finalized later this year.